The Circle Textiles Program is a Dutch initiative that’s focuses on closing the loop for post-consumer textiles. The program, which was launched in 2014, wants to achieve a zero-waste industry by developing and creating a commercial, scalable model for closing the loop on post-industrial and pre- and post-consumer textiles. It will also develop new tools for the industry that are critical in engaging companies in closed-loop strategies.

One of these is the Circle Fashion tool, an interactive platform that offer brands a circularity scan, from both a strategic and environmental perspective, and offer reasonable recycling scenarios for capturing value from textile waste. The program’s other projects include Fibersort, a machine that sorts large volumes of mixed post-consumer textiles waste, and Circle Market, an online marketplace for the recovery, reuse and resale of textiles.

Circle Textiles feels fashion can be a force for good and that its pragmatic, tool-based approach will make it easier for the global apparel industry to transition to new, restorative business models. C&A Foundation is the program’s latest ally on its mission to close the loop for textiles and create a zero-waste industry. The foundation has committed 2,78,000 dollars to expand the Circle Textiles Program.